Wednesday, September 16, 2009

kindergarten has started...

i just realized i hadn't posted anything since jacob has started school. so here's my update.

school is going fantastic!!! he loves it there. so much so that he has told me several times that he wants to switch to all-day kindergarten. if we could afford it (we can't afford 1/2 day), i would grant him this wish. maybe after Christmas we can switch him. we'll see.

his teacher says he is doing very well. in the beginning, like all of the students, he had trouble raising his hand and sitting still. but once he became acclimated to the classroom and teacher, he has done nothing but excel.

they don't get "grades" in kindergarten, but they are graded. they get a 1, 2, or 3. Three being high. she even made a point to say that most kids will get a 2, which means they understand what is happening and what they are learning. but jacob has a 2 and a 3!!! he is excelling! not that i'm suprised by this though. he truly is the smartest 5 year old i know. (i think i need to stop telling him that though) tonight he pulled out a book for his dad to read him and he sounded out the title...DUMBO. he did it all by himself. my little boy is starting to read!!!! we've been working on it over the summer and every time we read books...but to hear him do it on his own...amazing!!! i'm so proud of him.

we've only had a couple of bad days at school. and those happen to be the 2 days that i forgot to give him his medicine. the first time, i didn't realize it until i was off the parking lot. when i picked him up, she said that they'd had a rough day and that he was interrupting and didn't finish his work. i told her i forgot to give him his medicine...and she said, "makes sense." so at least i know that it's working. today was the 2nd time. and unfortunately, he got a 'yellow' sun stamp today. every day they get a stamp on their calendar. green-perfect, yellow-disruptive a bit, red-there will be a written explaination--but it won't be good. this is his first yellow. when i asked him why he got a yellow stamp, he said, "because i didn't take my medicine." he knows his medicine helps him. maybe he knows a little too much. if he can blame his medicine, or lack thereof, maybe that's not a good thing.

jacob is now doing focalin xr 10mg in the morning and around 2-3pm, focalin 5mg. now...i hardly give him the 5mg because i hate medicating him at all. but when he has soccer practices on friday evenings, i make sure he gets it those nights. he's a totally different kid at practice at 5:30pm than he is at a game at 9am. at the game he's wonderful, listens, follows instructions, follows the game, sits still on the bench (as still as any other kindergartener)....at practice, he's screaming in kids ears, running all over the field, doing everything he's not supposed to be doing, not listening to the coach and not doing the drills he's supposed to be doing.

unfortunately, i think that both of these meds are wearing off too quickly. i strongly believe that if he went full-day, he'd have trouble after noon. by lunch time, we're starting to be upset with each other and lose our patience. the little boost of 5mg doesn't really help that much when we're at home. it only helps mildly at practice. but i'll take what i can get.

he won't take a small tablet. i have to crush up the 5mg tab. he took it one time in pudding without knowing it...but since then...he's caught on and doesn't trust me. the capsule in the AM, i open up and sprinkle on pudding...these are the only meds that i will be able to do that with. anything else, it's my understanding, he'll have to swallow a pill. i'm scared.

i know it's a game of trial and error...but i really had such high hopes since his meds were working so well at first....but that's the life of a mom with an ADHD child. it could be so much worse!!! i'm thrilled with my children, and i couldn't love them any more than i do. i just wish our days didn't have to be so full of unhappiness because of jacob's issues. but we'll continue to work on it. i'll continue to read more books, research online for behavior modifications, etc. we will get it under control. let's just hope it's sometime before he goes away to college!

1 comment:

I just wanted to tell you I found your blog from Penny's blog (ADHDmomma), I too have a Kindergartner that was just diagnosed with ADHD, though we're even earlier on in the process, we just got the diagnosis this past Tuesday and don't have any other info yet. Thank you for sharing your experiences.